After surviving the worst mass shooting in modern American history, a young couple in California is headed down the aisle.

Brandon Helmick, 21, took his girlfriend, Mykenzie Lane, 22, to their favorite spot in Laguna Beach, where he popped the question on the sand in the middle of a heart made with rose petals.

"I for sure cried and was completely speechless," Lane told InsideEdition.com Thursday. Brandon and Mykenzie have been together for three years and had discussed marriage before Stephen Paddock fired on concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest musical festival in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and shooting Mykenzie in the ankle.

The experience may have affected Brandon's decision to propose, she said.

"We do like to live every day to the fullest, and you never know what's going to happen so it may have influenced the urgency," she said.

They plan to wed on Aug. 3.

There was a terrifying amount of urgency on October 1, when Brandon and Mykenzie heard three shots and then all hell broke loose. More shots rang out. Brandon "threw himself on top of me and then said, 'We gotta go. Run now! So I started jumping over fences and he ran in front of me," Mykenzie said.

He "slid under some storage containers and then pulled me in. The last thing to come under was my left ankle, which got shot straight through my cowboy boot," she said.

She tried to get up and run again, but "I couldn't anymore." Brandon carried her on his back "and started running for what felt like forever until we finally found a ride to the hospital," she said.